


Sons of the Silent Age

by eldweebo



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Dominion War (Star Trek), Friends to Lovers, Letters, Love Letters, M/M, gayyyyy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 00:37:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20787689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldweebo/pseuds/eldweebo
Summary: An epistolary exchange between two friends, one trapped under an oppressive regime, the other fighting to liberate him.





	Sons of the Silent Age

**Author's Note:**

> A few quick notes.
> 
> 1\. I'm playing it a little fast and loose with the continuity here. I realized only in revising that Jake describing Ziyal like he had no idea who she was doesn't exactly mesh with the previous few seasons. Eh. So sue me! I think it works nice. I'm sure you'll find plenty of other examples.
> 
> 2\. While I don't like bringing this up in a fanfic for fear of seeming like I'm trying to gain some glory from someone's untimely passing, it also feels disingenuous not to mention. During the course of my writing this, really as I was nearly complete, Aron Eisenberg, the actor who played Nog, died at the age of 50. Eisenberg is a great example of what makes DS9 so good. Like the show itself, Nog is a character that seems at first glance to be corny, goofy. He's green with big ears and pointy teeth. He talks silly and worships money. But there's so much more to him than that. Eisenberg brought out the immense depth in Nog. If you for some ungodly reason haven't seen the episodes "Heart of Stone" or "It's Only a Paper Moon," go watch them now. I'll keep this brief while I'm still <2000 characters, but just wanted to pay homage to a really talented actor who brought life to our favorite wily green boy.

From: Jake Sisko  
To: Cadet Nog  
Stardate 50975.6  
Nog -  
I’m sure you’re surprised to be getting this message. I know you’re probably pretty upset that I stayed behind. I know what you’ll say: it was irresponsible, reckless, ill-considered, and stupid. I want you to understand. You left because that was your duty. I stayed for the same reason. I’m a writer, Nog. You can laugh. I know Ferengi don’t understand us artist types. But when all this is done, when the Dominion and the Cardassians are defeated and DS9 is free once more, we’ll need to know what happened here. I can help tell the story of the Bajorans who will suffer, who already have suffered, under Dukat’s return. Of the free aliens suddenly stuck under Dominion rule. Of the corruption and cruelty that comes with the moniker “Terok Nor.” We grew up in the shadow of the Occupation of Bajor. Here it is again. Call me self-involved, but I think if there had been a Federation writer sending missives back to Starfleet every week during the Occupation, we would have intervened a little sooner. We might have prevented some of the horrors, if only slightly. So I’m here because it’s my duty to write, to report, to record, just like it’s your duty to keep the Defiant running. That’s how we win this war.  
And let’s be real: I’d just be in the way on the Defiant.  
Write me back when you can, Nog. I know you have your Ferengi ways and can get something as small as a datarod behind enemy lines. Tell my dad I miss him and that I’m sorry. I wrote him a letter but it wouldn’t hurt for him to hear it twice.  
Yours,  
Jake Sisko

From: Cadet Nog  
To: Jake Sisko  
Stardate 50975.8  
Jake -  
Yes, “irresponsible, reckless, ill-considered, and stupid” is a good description. I could think of a few more words, but the first that comes to my mind is “selfish.” You do know you’re not the only person in the Bajoran sector capable of stringing a sentence together? The Federation and, sure, history itself might need a record-keeper on DS9 right now, but it doesn’t have to be you. You didn’t have to put yourself in harm’s way just to pursue some heroic quest about winning the war with words on a PADD. This isn’t one of Doctor Bashir’s holoprograms. This is real war. People are dying, Jake. It’s only a matter of time before DS9 is under the same type of military rule it was under the Occupation. What do you think they’ll do to the son of a Starfleet captain then? Certainly not let him write all their crimes down and send them across the galaxy to their biggest enemy in the quadrant. You could have been here with your family, your friends, me, but instead you stayed behind.  
Tell my father I’ll be home soon.  
N.

From: Jake Sisko  
To: Cadet Nog  
Stardate 50975.9  
Nog-  
I can’t believe you sometimes! You’re worse than my dad! You sign up for Starfleet, the most dangerous profession in the galaxy, and give me grief for being a journalist? Then you leave your father behind on DS9. He is worried sick. I was just talking to Leeta this morning. She says he barely eats anything, he sleeps only a few hours a night, he spends thirty minutes at a time praying to the Grand Exchequer for your safe return. All so you can work on a starship and make something of yourself, because his life wasn’t good enough for you. You’re not the only engineer in Starfleet, you know. And you’re just a cadet! What, a single Ferengi cadet is going to beat back endless waves of Jem’Hadar? Fat chance!  
Jake

From: Cadet Nog  
To: Jake Sisko  
Stardate 50975.23  
Jake-  
Sorry for the delay in this letter. It’s been a difficult two weeks. It seems everywhere we turn is another squadron of Jem’Hadar fighters. We barely have time to reinject the antimatter reactors before another appears.  
I don’t want to fight you. I do enough fighting with them, I can’t fight you as well. I may not be able to understand why you stayed behind, but that’s okay. We all make our choices. You’ll have to explain it to me if I ever get back to DS9.  
Your father is well, but he’s under a lot of pressure. He hides it expertly, but a Ferengi always knows. I hope you are writing to him as often as you can.  
Please tell Leeta and my father that I send my regards.  
Stay safe, Jake. The Defiant is on a difficult mission. We need people back home to fight for.  
Yours,  
N.

From: Jake Sisko  
To: Cadet Nog  
Stardate 50975.25  
Nog-  
Don’t you do that again! So long without a word, I was worried something had happened. I could have hugged Morn when he slipped me your datacrystal.  
I know I said a lot of terrible things in my last letter. (You started it! Just kidding. Mostly.) Rom is very worried, Leeta too, even Quark, and especially me. But all of us know you’re too damn stubborn to get shot down by the Dominion.  
I have to keep letters short. The less data, the easier to conceal. Dukat is clamping down. He’s doing it in subtle, terrible ways. Some days it feels like we’re still under Federation/Bajoran rule. But we’re not. We’re really not. It’s an interesting life. Putting it in words is a challenge, risk of life and limb aside. For now, know that I’m as safe as I can be. Dukat wants to play the benefactor, the loving patrician, and killing the Emissary’s son wouldn’t look good. We’ll share some root beers and catch each other up when you return. Not if. When.  
Stay safe, Nog. For yourself, for your family. For me.  
Your friend,  
Jake

From: Cadet Nog  
To: Jake Sisko  
Stardate 50975.27  
Jake -  
Things are getting better out here, at least for the moment. We’ve rendevoused with the Klingon Fleet and are making quick work of a Jem’Hadar phalanx. If we’re successful, we’ll have closed off a vital supply line from their colonies in Cardassian space to Federation front lines. With the Klingons around, we’ve even had the time to stand down. Not just to do massively backlogged maintenance but to rest! Lieutenant Dax is a changed woman with her fiance nearby. It was adorable at first but now it just reminds me how lonely this war is, how far I am from the people I love.  
I miss Deep Space 9. I miss everything about it, even the ugly Cardassian architecture and the bizarre plant mush Bajorans call food. Plus there was more air there! I’m smothering in the stink of you Hewmons! And now with the Klingons on board? Blech!  
I miss a lot of things about home, Jake. Please write back soon.  
Yours,  
N.

From: Jake Sisko  
To: Cadet Nog  
Stardate 50975.30  
Nog-  
The Defiant’s firey trail across Cardassian space is the whisper on everyone’s lips on DS9. All the news we get, officially, says that those Jem’Hadar convoys are simply a little delayed, and that the Klingon fleet spotted in Dominion territory are just scouts. We knew better, but it wasn’t until your letter that we could confirm it, and make the connection with the Defiant. Your successes, as the Federation, as underdogs, as the ship of the Emissary, it empowers them. To see Bajor return to Cardassian rule only a half a dozen years after liberating themselves is demoralizing. You can see it in their eyes. There’s a weariness, a frustration. In the past couple months, I’ve seen that weariness become resignation, that frustration become fatigue. Yet with every victory the Defiant scores, big or small, a bit of glimmer returns to their eyes. I couldn’t be prouder of my friend Cadet Nog, hero of Bajor - and Ferenginar I’m sure.  
It can be lonely here too. Strange, on such a crowded, lively space station. It’s a little quieter, a little slower, a little less packed to the brim with people, then it was under Federation management, but it’s still DS9. You still have to wait 30 minutes for a turbolift to the promenade that actually has room for you. Despite that, Dominion life is lonely, especially when the war has put a few thousand lightyears between me and my best friend.  
You think you’ve got it bad with Dax and Worf? Get this: Garak has a girlfriend. I was surprised as you are! He’s head over heels for her. I can see why, she’s a brilliant young artist named Ziyal. You won’t believe who her dad is. Guess. GUL DUKAT. I knew life on Dominion controlled DS9 was going to be weird but this is too much! Still, it doesn’t help a lonely heart to see two lovebirds like them. Only makes one more aware of how long the nights are, how cold the days.  
Come back soon, Nog. We need you.  
Your friend who misses you,  
Jake

From: Cadet Nog  
To: Jake Sisko  
Stardate 50976.1  
Garak has a girlfriend? A _girl_friend? And she is Gul Dukat’s daughter? I’m forced to assume this is some sort of cryptogram and you’ve encoded important strategic information as what is otherwise nonsense. That, or you’ve completely lost your mind. Your truthfulness aside, I’ll keep this information to myself. The last thing we need is our good doctor in low spirits. As far as he’s concerned, Garak is pining at their usual lunch table until he returns.  
Pining in space really is something. Chief O’Brien has chided me, more than once, for wasting time staring out the viewport at the vast, incomprehensible distance between us, every star streaking by reminding me that our heading is wrong. It takes a concerted effort not to run up to the helmsmen and order him to turn the Defiant aft. We’re heading the wrong way! Further into Dominion space. Further into the fray. Further from home. Further from you. The Chief isn’t too harsh about it. Nor Lieutenant Dax, nor even your father. We all feel it. We’re all further than we’d like to be from someone special.  
The worst part is, it’s just beginning. Next week, we begin a covert mission. Captain Sisko will be staying behind with the Admiral, and Dax will be taking his seat on the bridge. I’m afraid we’ll have to observe strict radio silence. Send your letters to Starbase 375, and I’ll read them when we return there. Which won’t be long. But it will feel much longer, I’m sure.  
I’ll speak to you soon, I promise.  
We’re almost home, Jake.  
Until we speak again,  
N.

From: Jake Sisko  
To: Cadet Nog  
Stardate 50976.8  
I have to keep this short. Dukat and Weyoun are clamping down. Tell Starfleet the female changeling is here. There’s a cell forming. The usual suspects, but our constable is notably absent. I’m doing what I can.  
You are not alone on the Defiant. I don’t mean Chief O’Brien. I am there with you. Even with the twin lead blankets of police state censorship and of classified black ops missions keeping us silent, I’m there with you, and you’re here with me. We’ve been best friends since the day my father and I came to Deep Space 9. One stupid war isn’t going to change that.  
Yours,  
Jake

From: Jake Sisko  
To: Cadet Nog  
Stardate 50977.10  
Nog-  
I wanted to wait until you wrote me back. And I wanted to wait until you got back to tell you this. But I can’t. Why wait? That’s the question I keep circling back to: why wait?  
The galaxy is a place of infinite challenges. It is a labyrinth, and behind every turn is a new minotaur, a beast of incomprehensible proportions, designed to tear you limb from limb. The Borg. The Dominion. Dukat. I never told you this, I worried it would concern you too much, but some time ago one of the Vedeks hanged herself on the promenade, just to prove a point. The saddest thing is none of us could really mourn for her. No, when we saw her jump, when we saw the Cardassians and Jem’Hadar carry away her lifeless body, we were mourning for Bajor, and for ourselves. This war has made the people of this system into the living dead, thrusting the older Bajorans back ten years into the stranglehold of occupation and removing everything familiar the rest of us have ever known.  
So what do we do? What can we do, but fight? We’ve been fighting. We’ve had to be slow, careful, smart. Moreso even than in the days of the Bajoran Resistance. No room for IEDs in a station so concentrated with civilians. I hope, when Federation and Klingon forces return to this sector, our fight will make your fight easier.  
But fighting isn’t the only part of resisting the descent into madness and fascism. There’s also surviving. Thriving. Taking that which you love and holding it dear, protecting it, valuing it. These new romances on the station, Rom and Leeta, Garak and Ziyal, so many others. I was worried about them when the hammer of Cardassian/Dominion rule fell, but they’ve only become stronger. I can see why. It helps you remain sane, love does. It keeps you in check. It helps you organize what’s valuable in your life.  
So, Nog. I need to finally tell you this.  
I love you.  
I love you so much.  
I don’t know when it started. I’ve known you half my life now. You’re family, but somewhere along the way you became something more. We became something more. You matter so much to me. Knowing I have someone out there to wait for, someone fighting even harder than me. Just having someone to love, to care about.  
I love you, Nog.  
Come home soon.  
Yours,  
Jake

From: Cadet Nog  
To: Jake Sisko  
Stardate 50977.13  
Jake-  
This is going to be the last message you receive from me for some time. I won’t say too much, for fear that this gets intercepted and our plans are foiled, but next time we talk, it will be in person, on Deep Space 9, under Federation and Bajoran control, rid of all Dominion forces.  
I wish I could express my thoughts like you can, Jake. All I can say is, I love you too. You’re why I fight so hard. To protect my family, the people I care about, the man I love.  
There’s so much more to say. I can’t wait to say it in person.  
I love you,  
N.


End file.
